Dermot O’Leary hits back over X Factor ‘fix’ reports

X Factor host Dermot O’Leary has rubbished reports that he admitted the show was fixed to save
Katie Waissel on Sunday night, insisting they are false and there is no ‘plot’ going on.

Dermot O’Leary has slammed reports he admitted the show was a ‘fix’

Dermot took to Twitter to ‘clear up’ the assertions made in newspapers this morning claiming he had unveiled X Factor’s master plan and told his followers the publications had got the ‘wrong end of the stick’.

More: The worst TV voting scandals ever. Reports suggested show bosses – including Dermot and the four judges – were told who the bottom two were in the interval before Dermot announced the results on the live show, so they hatched a plan to enable Cheryl to dodge casting her vote.

But Dermot earlier this morning took to his social-networking page hitting back at this morning’s reports saying: ‘No ‘plot’ as quoted…’

‘We never know which way the judges are going to vote. Ever. The only thing I know is who’s in the bottom two when I’m given the card.

The moment Cheryl Cole refused to send one of her acts home – but Dermot insists this wasn’t pre-planned

‘I don’t know which judge to go to until I’m called, and the judges, including Simon, don’t know the vote or who we’re coming to next. It’s that simple.’

However this isn’t the first time Dermot, 37, has had to stick-up for the ITV show. Writing on Twitter earlier this week, he said: ‘I know everyone will think conspiracy, but I really wouldn’t be part of that’ and yesterday, speaking to ITN, he explained the reasoning further by saying the ‘precedence’ of going to a majority vote has been there since he was on the show: ‘Sharon did exactly the same thing, refused to vote.’

He had also already explained the show’s decision to go to a majority verdict – and not because they devised a cunning ploy in the break.

‘During the break when we find out who’s in the bottom two, bottom three, we always kind of know who’s going to be in the bottom two just in the break before but we never know which way the judges are going to vote.

Meanwhile, Dannii Minouge, 39, has put a further spanner in the works by admitting if she ever finds herself in Cheryl’s position whereby two of her boys are in the bottom two facing elimination, she would do exactly the same as the Geordie judge.

Speaking to X magazine, she said: ‘There’s no way I could send one home. I think you just have to put yourself in [Cole’s] shoes. I said to Simon backstage, “You could do it but none of us could do it”.’And if it does happen again, hordes of fans are likely to angered all over again as X Factor have publicly revealed they’d back the judge’s decision saying: ‘A judge can abstain from placing a vote.’